I was just wondering - what’s everyone’s favorite catfishing rigs, how do you like to fish them and with what bait? For a long time, my favorites have been the basic slip sinker rig and the drop shot rig. Just recently, I started experimenting with the Santee-Cooper Rig and the slip sinker rig. As far as bait goes, I’ve always used nightcrawlers, dip bait, and the occasional leech. My experimenting with the different rigs hasn’t been too successful, but I feel like I need to switch up my bait. Some fresh shad might be better, but my time on the water is kinda limited, so I usually head straight out there with whatever bait I already have.

Junie’s Sewer Dip on a plug with a heavy sinker. When I would camp on the Mississippi River on the IL/Iowa border, I’d usually just throw a hook with a worm out, somewhat heavy sinker, and just let the current take my line out a little ways from the boat. Never got any monsters, but a lot of smaller good eaters

I guess I’m just gonna have to step up my game and get some live bait going. Its gonna be rough though - I’m way outta practice with the casting net. I guess I can always set out a few minnow traps the night before. I used to get a good mixture of shiners and crawdads with ‘em, back when I could run bank poles every weekend/all summer long.

I never have used any Junie’s baits, but I almost always use their dip bait worms. They seem to hold the bait better in current than other brands. Once upon a time, I used to catch a bunch of fish on Bee-Jay dough bait and those Wild Cat Blood dough balls. Mostly switched over to Sonny’s now, and it seems to be the best dip bait on the market these days. We never did catch any monsters on any of the prepared bait we had, but we always caught a cooler full of fillet-size fish.

Sonny’s can wash off of the dip worm pretty easy, if you’re fishing in current. One trick I learned was to apply it, and dip the rig in the water. The water will cool off the bait and make it stick better, so it doesn’t fling off when you cast it. The big reason I use Junies dip worms is because they make the one that’s egg-shaped at the top. That bulge kinda protects the bait that’s stuck to the bottom half of the worm. I think it helps hold the bait a lot longer than a straight worm.